RAGEOT DE SAINT-LUC, CHARLES, clerk of the provost court of Quebec and royal notary; baptized 12 Aug. 1674 at Quebec, eldest son of Gilles Rageot*, royal notary and clerk of court, and of Marie-Madeleine Morin; d. and buried 18 Dec. 1702 at Quebec.

Even before the end of his studies, probably at the Jesuit college, Charles Rageot began to help his father in the registry of the provost court. Gilles Rageot, although still young, suffered a great deal from gout. When he died it was, therefore, natural to think of his son as his successor. On the recommendation of Frontenac [Buade*] and Champigny [Bochart], the king granted Charles a commission as clerk of court, dated 1 March 1693. After the customary investigation as to “character” he was admitted to office by the Conseil Souverain on 7 December following. As he was not yet 25 – the age at which one attained one’s majority – he had to get his mother to stand surety for him before he could practise his profession.

In 1695 Charles Rageot obtained a commission as royal notary, which has not been found. As clerk of court and royal notary, on occasion appearing for a litigant before the council, Charles was treading blithely in his father’s footsteps. With his future assured, he married Marie-Geneviève Gauvreau, aged 17, on 23 May 1696. She bore him four children, two of whom, both boys, died shortly after birth. In the autumn of 1702 Rageot, like all his fellow-citizens, was getting ready for a peaceful winter; for example, on 28 October he signed a contract with a settler of Lauson for the purchase of 12 cords of wood at 50 sols a cord. But an epidemic of smallpox broke out suddenly, spreading consternation and mourning throughout the colony. The strongest and the most active were not spared: Charles Rageot succumbed 18 December and his wife on the 26th; on 5 January their younger daughter also died. The only survivor was Marie-Madeleine-Geneviève, born in 1697, who later became an Hospitaller.

This short existence had certainly not allowed Charles to amass a fortune. True, he had invested 300 livres in the Compagnie de la Colonie; but in 1708 Jacques Raudot stated that he had “left no assets.”

His brother, Nicolas Rageot de Saint-Luc, succeeded him as royal notary and clerk of court.

We acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage. Nous reconnaissons l’appui du gouvernement du Canada par l’entremise du ministère du Patrimoine canadien.